Penn Hall

Penn Hall is a late 17th-century house with alterations and additions from the early to mid 18th century, now part of a school. It is located on Vicarage Road, Penn, Wolverhampton. The building is constructed of brick with ashlar dressings, and has a hipped tile roof with brick stacks. Originally likely an L-shaped house, it was converted to a square plan with a servants’ wing to the right. It is in an Early Georgian style.

The main front is two storeys and has a five-window range. Features include an ashlar plinth, a top cornice, a stone-coped parapet, and quoins. The windows have rubbed brick flat arches over 12-pane sashes, some with thick glazing bars, and two small lights at the right end. A two-storey porch has a round-arched entrance, angle pilasters, spandrels, a broken segmental pediment containing a late 19th-century sundial, an architraved window above, and a top modillioned pediment featuring a heraldic cartouche. Two cross-axial brick stacks are present, one panelled.

The symmetrical seven-window garden front has similar detailing, including four ball finials to the parapet. Some first-floor windows have keystones and altered glazing bars. The entrance has an eared architrave, pediment and a half-glazed door. The rear elevation has varied window placements, some sashes with thick glazing bars, and a canted oriel. A former entrance is marked by angle pilasters, a frieze, and a consoled cornice. A left wing has similar details, with an open pediment above the entrance. A gabled wing with a hipped roof adjoins the left side, and a rear wing is to the right. One window in the hall contains stained glass; other windows are sash types. The rear wing has a brick frieze, a coped gable, and segmental-headed windows with leaded casements, as well as a blocked entrance.

The interior entrance hall contains panelling reportedly from the Church of St Bartholomew. It includes bolection-moulded panels and a dado rail. There is a late 19th-century fireplace with a painted overmantel, and doors with architraves and cornices, as well as a moulded plaster ceiling. A cloakroom has Delft tiles. One room has panelling and a modillioned cornice, shell-vaulted niches and a bolection-moulded panel above the fireplace. Another room has an egg and dart cornice, a Rococo fireplace with an egg-and-dart architrave, tapering pilasters with foliage and drops, an enriched frieze, and a deep cornice. Two doors have eared architraves, enriched Rococo friezes and cornices. A third room has a modillioned cornice, architraved windows, a dado rail, architraved doors with friezes and cornices, a marble fireplace with a bolection-moulded architrave, frieze, modillioned cornice, Delft tiles, and an overmantel painting. The stair hall features bolection-moulded panelling, a cornice, and a star vault with a rich plaster wreath to its lantern. An open stairwell has been altered with a 20th-century lift, retaining some twisted balusters to the landing. On the first floor, doors have one large panel over four smaller panels. One room has 17th-century panelling and a moulded plaster frieze and ceiling, with some reused linenfold panelling around the fireplace. Penn Hall is a significant example of an early to mid 18th-century house, notable for its fine interior features.